


untitled

by dledee



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:49:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dledee/pseuds/dledee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A possible take on what happened with Tatia on the night the curse was cast.<br/>There is no ship, just a scared woman who would've liked to have protected her son better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	untitled

Everything was set far too beautifully, every little thing in it’s proper place as if moving it a mere inch would set the entire earth’s axis into disarray, as if someone’s life depended on it. And it did. _Hers_.

 _Don’t cry, Tatia. Don’t cry. She is not worthy of your tears_. But it was hard to pretend that everything about this was normal, that she did not know what was going on. She had noticed the way the woman’s sons looked at her, and she had noticed the way the woman herself had looked at her. She had tried to escape it, had tried to push away the advances of the two, ignoring how charming they were and pointing out to them how she was too busy caring for her own son, how she did not have the time to slip away to the dark of the woods as if she were a young maiden and they had better find someone else, someone better suited to their needs.

Yes, she would have to marry soon enough, and she _should_ be grateful to have caught their eye. But she worried. She saw the way their family worked and she worried. She didn’t want that for her child. He would live a full, happy life, and he would never have the werewolf curse activated. He would never become that. He would be happy, if it killed her.

And that was apparently how it all would end. The flames were meant to warm her skin but instead let the cold spread to her heart, reminded her to be strong, to not fall down because of the woman who stood in front of her. “And if I refuse your offer?" She knew it to be useless, she had no way to refuse it, not when everything had already been set in motion. But she could hope. She could try. If only because someone was waiting for their mom to get back home. Alive.

Unfortunately, the other woman confirmed her fears. “Let me clear this whole scenario for you, Tatia. You will die. That is a fact that you can not change." Before Tatia could hold back, her tongue slipped “Have you truly no compassion in your heart for a mother?" She wished she wouldn’t have spoken, she wished she wouldn’t have made it worse. But it was so hard to hold back when someone was playing some sick, twisted game with her life. Especially when she had no way to stand on the same ground, not when she was the one who stood with everything to lose and without any powers beyond those of a normal human.

Yet the words seemed to have an effect on Esther. It made her flinch, almost imperceptibly. And then she was back to the stone cold glare she always had reserved for Tatia, as if the girl were responsible for all the evil in the world because her two sons didn’t know any better. “But I do. It is my compassion that makes me offer you the choice. Please understand I could do with you what I wish and leave you for dead. Instead I offer you the choice to come back, to be able to keep on caring for your son."

It was hard to keep the tears from prickling at her eyes. It was hard to listen to her mention him. “Don’t." This time it was a small whisper, a small note as she turned her gaze up, as she looked to the sky, to the distant stars. “You do understand this is the best I can offer? It’s better than dying." She was sick. _All_ of them were sick, even the two boys who had thrown her into this position she had never wished to be in. And just as she was staring up, one of the stars decided it was it's time to journey across the sky, to split it into two. A fallen spirit.

Finally she turned back to the woman, a new found resolution in her expression as she found her answer. “Do it. Turn me into whatever it is that I must turn into so that I will not leave this earth. But don’t you dare to ever forget what you did. Don’t you dare not be cursed for eternity for your crimes. Because it is a crime. To steal a life? The men were cursed to turn into wolves every full moon just for having the misfortune of accidentally taking a human life instead of that of an animal. Would you care to imagine what the spirits will bestow upon you for willingly taking an innocent life so that you can make sure that your children break every law nature has ever set in motion and be invulnerable? Do it. But be sure to be ready for the price you’ll pay. Because I’m ready to pay mine."

It still hurt. It was still painful to be ripped of her heart and soul and cursed to a life she would never have chosen for herself. But she was ready. And when the ritual was complete, when every inch of life had been drained from her and replaced with a curse she mustn’t speak of, Esther took her cursed blood to lace the others’ cups, got ready to kill the children she had given birth to. Some part of her heart ached for them, for the life their own parents were dooming them to. But a bigger part of her heart was far more concerned with her own fate, with her child’s fate. She could waste her time feeling sorry for those who had doomed her into this, or she could do what she had promised herself and be there for her own child. They were grown men, the latter would always win out.

So instead of warning them, instead of giving Esther even one more word, she ran. She ran faster than she ever had and back into the arms of the only male in the world who mattered, the one to whom she promised she would always stand beside. He was the only one to whom she owed anything, to only one that she should live for. Everyone else was irrelevant.

But as she reached him, as she caught his scent, the run slowly came to an halt as the realization hit her, as the sounds of the village haunted to her and carried on the understanding that she couldn’t go back. The blood bubbling in them was too close, it brought about too many feelings and ripping their throats and feasting on it was at the top of the list. No, she wasn’t a killer, she couldn’t…

So instead of rushing in, she approached slowly, using the trees’ shadows to hide herself as she took a final glance at the child she had chosen to live for and who mustn’t ever more see her if she wanted them safe. It had all been useless, she still wouldn't have a chance to protect him. The tears that had threatened to spill ever since this whole ordeal started finally made their way down her cheeks, staining them with blood, punishing her with her decision. He would be happy, the villagers were kind, they would look after their own and it was clear in his features that his father had been a wolf. He’d live.

And in a swishing of leaves, she was gone. Forever.


End file.
